Sparked by Black Lives Matter & more, ICIS held a town hall to discuss diversity in the Information Systems discipline. I learned three lessons that will help me think more deeply about how to strengthen our community. First, diversity requires seeing people. Three African American scholars started the conversation. They described their lived experiences, concerns about diversity initiatives, & aspirations for black academics. Their narrative held power – illustrating tokenization, marginalization, & disparate treatment – in the discipline, by journals, & editorial boards. One scholar commented, “we will have diversity when I am recognized for my ideas, not for the color of my skin.” (sic) While I knew these scholars, I realized I really didn’t know them. I looked at them and myself with a new set of eyes. My first takeaway then, was that diversity requires seeing individuals & their accomplishments. We must value people. Second, diversity requires listening. An editor pointed out that through conversations with the community, he came to know people did not understand how he assembled his editorial board. He then described, in some detail, the process & challenges of changing his board’s composition - offering transparency - and a path to earning a spot on his board. I learned that my assumptions that everyone knows how editorial boards are composed were misplaced. My second takeaway then, diversity can be advanced by learning what people don’t know & offering knowledge to help others make choices about how & when they want to participate in the community. Third, diversity requires authentic conversations. Several volunteer leaders recorded videos describing their group’s efforts - all these activities embodied good intentions. Some familiar. Some provocative. Some fell flat. When the town hall moved from a one-way video narrative to a two-way human discussion, the audience engaged - surfacing issues, concerns, & possibilities for advancing the community. After the presentation, I reflected on what worked & did not work. I realized that my efforts to foster conversations on diversity often failed because they had been one-way. My final takeaway then, diversity requires two-way conversations. It can’t simply be a group of leaders asking people to change. It requires people to engage with each other & have honest conversations about their lives. Effecting real change will require each of us to recognize that we are talking about people, that it requires sharing knowledge that empowers people, & that it requires conversations between people. I recognize that much more needs to be done and said about diversity – but these lessons hold power for me. I hope more academics will join the conversation about building a discipline where we all have the knowledge & access needed to realize our dreams. #diversity #diversityequityinclusion
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